City of Tears is comparable to even the best of Silksong if not better. I love Widow, Phantom and Bellheart a lot but the every time I listen to CoT, I get transported back to the first time I reached the Hollow Knight monument and the vocals popped in. Transcendental.
Personally, Choral Chambers captured that exact same thing for me in skong. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's better than City of Tears, but it's definitely on par.
I don't get the obsession with the Choral Chambers, honestly.
City of Tears is telling a story of kingdom long gone, of events that have transpired, of lives of the old inhabitants. It's deeply personal.
Choral Chambers is just like "it's a religious thingy" to me.
Also had to look it up on yt to even remember how does it sound.
I had the exact feeling you described for CoT while hearing Chor C for the first time.
The fact it sounded religious to you I find telling, because that fits into the lore of what The Citadel was designed to be. The Citadel had a deeply religious hierarchy.
Not trying to rage bait, just to offer a different way to look at C.C.
Nothing in Silksong OST reminds me of Hallownest theme song though.
The fact it sounded religious to you I find telling
Well it does fit the theme, I'm not denying that. My point was more about depth - how much can you tell from it.
Although, it is quite subjective, I agree. Maybe I simply like CoT more musically and thus it stimulates imagination better for me.
Not trying to rage bait, just to offer a different way to look at C.C.
Either way, I'm not feeling any discontent with people preferring Silksong OST. Just sahring thoughts.
That's what most of HK ost is. Every area's theme is telling an area that is long gone. But the thing about silksong's ost is that it shows that the place is still alive but not on its peak and most of the area's ost tells the story of how dangerous silksong's world is.
I love both but I adored City of Tears the first time I heard it, super emotional moment entering the city, seeing the rain, and hearing that track. Choral Chambers though almost felt ringtone-like the first time I heard it. I like it much more now but it's not CoT level. I think the Bilewater ost is comparable to City of Tears though.
Edit, to the people downvoting this, it's just my opinion. You are entitled to love whatever song you want. If Reflection is your favorite piece than that's valid because the whole soundtrack is great and people relate to different pieces in different ways
Bilewater is like the modern sticker bush symphony. It is beauty and longing that follows you in an incredibly oppressive hellscape. I love the sentimentality of city of tears or greenpath but Bilewater resonates in a way that is special.
At least to me.
The more you understand music production and composition, the more you will understand the gap between the two. It’s not Hollow Knight’s music is not good, it’s just Silksong’s music is too godly.
Major themes just as beautifully catchy as HK + Full orchestra + more complex layers of composition + double amount of tracks = it’s just so much better.
You can hear the choir getting louder and more pronounced as you travel up through the Citadel. When you're in the bench room of cog work core the main melody of the area will play but very muted. Those are just the two I can think of but there's definitely a very varied soundscape throughout each area that makes it feel very dynamic.
I really like the HK OST but I can't think of any area in that game that does that. But comparing the two isn't super worthwhile to me? Because TC took what they learned in HK and applied it to Skong to improve it. We don't get Silk Song without Hollow Knight.
I think part of the reason why City of Tears is so fondly remembered is because it's one of the only pieces in the original Hollow Knight that does this.
Full orchestration and more complexity might make it better from a technical standpoint but what actually sounds better to people is purely subjective.
This, as a composer and classical music enjoyer I find Silksong’s OST to be more intricate and enjoyable, not to say the first game’s is bad in the slightest
the first game has 'bouncier' rhythms and melodies, makes it easier to imprint, combine that with an 8 year headstart to create nostalgia and its easy to see why people dont like Silksongs OST as much
I agree that Silksong's soundtrack is much more complex and layered, but I think that Hollow Knights's soundtrack is more catchy overall - in large part because of the simplicity. Complex songs are more interesting, but less immediately memorizable/earworm-y.
That’s the thing. The first game had simpler melodies, which made some of them more memorable than Silksong’s. It’s not out of the question that Silksong’s music is more advanced, but the styles are bit different to really compare them outright.
I think... this is probably my take with Silksong in general?
I dunno, there's just something about the way Hallownest feels that hits harder than Silksong does. And I don't necessarily know if this is just nostalgia speaking because I replayed Hollow Knight literal moments before really starting to dig into Silksong, so I was directly comparing the two.
It's still great, but I find myself preferring Hallownest and some hard-to-define aspect of it that I'm missing from Pharloom.
For me the biggest difference is how Hollow Knight is ambiguous. Theres a world thats mostly nature-ous, it has a story, which is pretty obscure itself and isnt shoved in your face or forced on you. Aside from that you just explore, enjoy and understand it freely.
Silksongs world on the other hand is all industrial. Mostly every area is built, with some sort of mechanical robot-like themes or other similar things and a story thats so in your face it feels like every other story-focused game. That type of world just doesnt hit the same for me. Wish it was more nature-y.
I hardly even noticed Silksong’s music until I hit Chroal Chambers (which is AMAZING, to its credit).
But for Hollow Knight, Greenpath was amazing, the Fungal Song was great, City of Tears is incredible and probably the best/most memorable in the game…
Basically every song for every region is almost immediately memorable.
Silksong’s music is definitely good when it’s good, but so much of it didn’t stand out to me at all, to the point where once I hit Choral Chambers and was hit with such a great song, I noticed I couldn’t remember a single song from other regions, and had to go revisit them (I think Blasted Wastes ended up sticking out to me the most).
My other comment was the exact same as yours, i only noticed the music at Choral Chambers and i also thought about how i didnt notice the previous areas music.
I also think that the game giving you sprint so early on it ruined my ability to notice details as i just sprint from enemy to enemy.
I remembered 4 tracks by the time i got the Choral Chambers: Lace, the generic arena/boss battle theme, Widow, and Blasted Steps. Act 2 has some good songs too other than Choral Chambers, overall the OST had a good amount of memorable tracks.
Yeah, both OSTs had absolute bangers, but I'm honestly struggling to remember a lot of themes from Silksong save the handful of obvious picks that truly stood out. I suppose you could argue that's a good thing that the music so seamlessly blended into the area, but I don't see it that way.
Agreed, i prefer when the music suits the zone, but stands out and makes an impression. The original game doing that with music that was mostly simple is what makes it good for me.
HK OST is great but I think it has too much virtual instruments, while in silksong they probably had more money and made more music with real instruments and singer.
I feel city of tears is a good example. When you listen in the game I don’t feel it as powerful and magical as people say, until you find the singer spirit that sings the same melody, which is heart melting
On par, but very different type and style and city of tears hits while choral chamber you just listen. Overrall HKs good soundtracks > Silksongs good soundtracks.
I'm in the same camp as OP, but a lot of it is because, as much as I loved HK, I never understood all of the hype for the ost. It was good atmospheric music and worked perfectly in the game, but not the kind of music I would ever go out of my way to look up.
Silksong, on the other hand...my YouTube music rewind had a shocking number of silksong tracks despite the game only coming out in September. I was obsessed with the strings in some of these songs. Only other games with OSTs that hooked me this well were the Doom and Nier games.
My problem with skong ost is that, as opposed to HK, k didn't notice it most of the time. Idk if it was too quiet or that some of the tracks were more like ambients or something. When it comes to soundtracks of areas specifically, I pretty much only remember cogwork core.
It was a bit better when I turned down all other sounds in the game, but there were still times where the music was either not noticable or not there.
I did listen to the ost separately tho and it's absolutely amazing, but I didn't really hear it in-game. (And before you ask, it's definitely not a me issue because the music in HK was and still is very noticable to me)
Cogwork Core was amazing. But it left me wishing more areas' music was like it. I felt they were too ambient for my tastes, or just after finishing HK it left me wanting that same prominent musical experience, rather than just background support.
Whoa, I never bothered to search that one out and listen to it on its own. It's so good. I think I may have found my new favorite, or second favorite, track in the game.
Wow, Lost Lace is one of my favorite tracks from Silksong. It is so emotional, rich and tells the story perfectly imo. I think both Sealed Vessel and the Lost Lace did great as a final boss music. Give it some time
I don’t know, there are high highs, but there is also some blasé stuff on SS OST. Also I watched a review that mentioned how there were more atmospheric tracks that don’t have a really strong melody or identity or sense of place, and I tend to agree (The Marrow springs to mind).
More good battle themes on SS than HK, but the OST is also twice as long, so I’m not sure if it’s better pound-for-pound. Also, the HK main theme is still better than SS.
I’d really need to go through track-by-track to really decide, but I don’t think it’s readily obvious which is better either way.
on your point about the marrow… i don’t think the music was helped by the fact that the marrow, far fields, and deep docks all kind of blended together.
My opinion of silksong's OST is that it doesnt reach the peak of HK's best tracks, but it is much more consistent in quality overall and throughout all of its tracks.
Did anyone else find most of the act 1 areas to have underwhelming tracks compared to hollow knight early game areas? The marrow, deep docks, far fields, and greymoor are fine tracks and have grown on me bit by bit but lack the impact of tracks like the crossroads, greenpath, and fungal wastes. Anyone else feel this?
I think the tracks fit the areas they play in, in both games. The atmosphere lends itself to the music. The games have different atmospheres. So the musicality as a whole is different. You’re allowed to enjoy the SS OST more but you’re also allowed to be wrong.
I mean yeah I can be wrong. What track is better is all opinion and not fact. But I feel like Christopher Larkin took it 5 steps further with this track
When I started played silksong, in my first 30 minutes I realized the sound effects were too loud and the soundtrack too low. I change the volume settings and never looked back. I think people that prefer HK OST probably didn’t do
I didn't notice this myself, but I was lucky enough that someone like you pointed this out to me early in my playthrough. So much better after adjusting the SFX down.
We tried this, and we also tried each area with the music off to see if it was better or worse with just the ambient noise. Some zones worked better with the latter for us tbh. Unfortunately though, even when we’d go through, and decide a lot of the music in zones was better than we initially thought, we’d go back to HK, and it would just blow us away again every time. My biggest issue with SS personally is just that half the music in zones just feels out of place. We went through, and with most zones’ tracks, we could name a different zone that it would’ve felt better in. Honestly, even outside of the music, a lot of the transitions between areas, both music wise and general scenery was just jarring compared to HK. The transitions in HK were magical, whereas SS seemed to just change completely with a zone line. We love SS, don’t get me wrong. And there are obvious improvements. But it’s just made the original feel that much more amazing to us.
Sounds good. There were a few that seeemed a little out of place at first to me like Bilewater. But then I realized what they were doing with Bilewater. The song is hauntingly beautiful, almost like it's mourning the place it used to be before the Citadel dumped all their waste there and ruined it. Seth seemed like a weird battle song at first too, and then I read up on the backstory of the kid who created Seth. Now that song hits a bit differently. I can't really think of any others that seemed out of place, but you can probably shed some light on things I'm overlooking
This might explain my take. I felt HK's OST hit me way harder WHILE playing, but when I listen to either OST on its own, SS is just so peak - each and every track is at least very good if not a banger. I need to turn up the music on SS... Phantom, on the contrary, hit hard for sure in game. Others did as well, just not as consistently as they did in HK.
No I did, I always mess around with the soundsettings whenever I get a new game untill it's to my liking, I just don't think most of the Silksong tracks are particularly special or memorable.
I did the same but I still prefer the HK by a wide margin, SS didn't do anything for me for technical reasons that I won't get too deep into unless there's some composition nerd to talk it out
The game has the soundtrack too low by default. I didn't even recognize Enter Pharloom when I played that section. You're doing yourself a disservice by not lowering the other sounds
Depends if you prefer violin or piano and harp, I think. Most of HK best songs have piano, harp, or both as their main instrument. For obvious reasons, Christopher Larkin went with violin as the primary instrument for silk song.
I personally prefer HK music, but if you really like violin, I can see preferring Silksong
It's a bit more than that. Strings are the Weaver motif in Silksong. The way those strings are played, and on which instruments, all are an important piece of the storytelling.
Hollow Knight has its motifs as well, yes. But overall they're simpler and just...less. The composer really did mature (and have more time) for Silksong.
Sadly none of the silk song music gets stuck in my head, where as the forgotten crossroads, town, green path, city of tears, crystal palace, they all live in my head rent free.
There are highlights like Bilewater and Choral Chambers and Moss Grotto. But I think a lot of the area themes are very forgettable. Like maybe as many as half of them just feel like ambient noise.
From looking at some of the comments here, I think the most "objective" conclusion is this imo:
Silksong has better combat tracks(or at least, more good combat tracks than HK)
HK has better ambient/background tracks
This is kinda what I'm getting here. I see city of tears thrown around a lot, and off of the top of my head I can think of green path & crystal peak as other memorable HK tracks. In contrast, I can barely think of any ambient/location tracks from SS(Cogwork core, I guess?)
Meanwhile, from HK there are some really good combat tracks(sisters of battle, sealed vessel, Grimm...), but Silksong just has more tracks that are good/great(Cogwork dancers, lace, Widow, karmelita, hell I'd argue khann... There are more, but I'm not going to talk about all of them mostly because there's so many bosses lmao).
Idk maybe its because i spent so much less time on any given area of silksong, and have only done 1 playthrough so far, but i feel like silksongs ost is a lot less memorable than hollow knights
While I’m still firmly on the HK side so far, all of these discussions feel somewhat pointless until all of Silksong is out. If people were comparing everything base game to base game, it would be one thing, but that just hasn’t been the case. Silksong isn’t done yet.
Eh- I liked silksong’s tracks but I don’t remember any of them. There are plenty I can replay in my head from HK like dirtmouth, city of tears, fungal wastes, soul sanctum, resting grounds, nkg, etc
I kinda disagree, I feel like HK OST is overall a better album as a whole since is really consistent
However there are some tracks for Silksong better than the HK ones, but the overall as an album is a little bit more lacking sin HK OST is really great
What are you talking about lacking sin? We have sinner's road! There's so much sin in silksong I would give up my life savings of rosaries to confess them
Same here. Some people exaggerate so much when it comes to simply sharing their opinions. You can tell me you love a soundtrack without making it sound like you want to start an argument
Exactly. Both are amazing and both are done by the same composer for similar games thematically. It’s understandable if someone prefers something but the exaggerations and oversimplifications when people try to communicate their “hot takes” is exhausting 🥱
Here's what I think : just like the visuals, Silksong tried to blend more with itself ; when TC made HK, they "randomly" put up locations, enemies etc next to each other and they said to themselves "we'll make it work together", and they did.
But I highly doubt they went with the same approach for SS, which results in visuals and musics to maybe be more coherent as a whole, for the entirety of the kingdom I mean, but in return, some of it might stick less than what HK did because of a less contrasted experience from one place to another. I firmly believe that's the truth to be honest.
In the end it doesn't matter, both are amazing and valid ways of doing things.
The worst is worse, the better is MUCH better. City of tears, queens gardens, enter hallownest and pure vessel absolutely blow anything silksong has to offer out of the water FOR ME.
Maybe im a doomer, but stepping into Dirtmouth to that melancholy OST sets the vibe too well and i love that type of OST. And then theres greenpath, or my favourite, City of Tears, or all the late game bosses OSTs, they just hit. In SS it felt like there was too much going on in most tracks, HKs tracks did simplicity well, but nothing in SS even made an impression on me or made me care to listen other than Choral Chambers OST. SS OSTs were just like any other game to me and ngl, with the whole 'find discs to play' at that one bug under songclave i thought we'd get something as good as Quixotic in Lies of P for example, which despite being hidden behind a random casette is one of my favourite OSTs of all time, but it was all gibberish garbage in Silksongs version of that...
The one thing that makes Silksong's OST better is the fact they were recorded with higher quality instruments as opposed to HK's more digital soundscape.
Original Sound Track. I don't think you'll get anyone to spell this out without asking though, since it's been around forever and is commonly used. No worries though, can't know everything.
I might consider agreeing with you if there were bells in at least the bellbeast theme. I love Christopher Larkin as much as the next guy, but for a game themed around bells there are pitifully few in the music
Silksong has most of my favorite individual songs, benefits massively from the live orchestra, and has IMO no “mid” tunes to speak of (Strive >>> Decisive Battle). They’re all so well suited to their moments. Choral Chambers evokes pure grandeur and relief, Widow is an absolute blast, the atmospheric tunes like Cogwork Core and Deep Docks are perfect, and Lost Lace may not quite edge out Sealed Vessel but it’s easily one of my favorite final boss tracks of all time.
But Hollow Knight does a better job of creating a cohesive whole with unique themes carried throughout. Think of the Dirtmouth melody carrying through from Forgotten Crossroads, to Greenpath, to the Fungal Wastes. Or the simple and elegant City of Tears theme becoming ominous and ostentatious in the Soul Sanctum. Or the White Palace motif, and how Hornet’s theme develops on that melody and turns it into something all her own. Or the main title theme showing up anywhere we see the Vessels, always signaling some sense of incompleteness and emptiness, until the true ending cutscene where it finally resolves.
That’s not to say that Silksong’s OST is worse at telling its story, only that it’s a more scattered story with a more cosmopolitan world. If there is consistency between zones, it has more to do with the timbre and instrumental palette chosen than the melodies - which are always the star of the show in Hollow Knight.
I think they’re both great. Larkin clearly had more to work with in the second game, but there’s something to be said for innovation from limitation, too.
How do you evaluate one OST being better than the other one?
Is it by personal opinion, are you a musician or other kind of sound professional? Is it by how much they match the visual art? Is it simply how it makes you feel?
I do it based on melodies, how well it fits the location, emotions, and overall sound, but also I do play instruments and am trying (large emphasis on trying) to learn music theory so I do try and analyze the music.
Silksong and Hollow Knight for me just captures a lot more emotion and makes me feel like I am the one in these environments, but I feel like silksong does it so much better compared to Hollow Knight, and there is a personal preference becauseI really prefer the orchestral sounds and tones compared to piano and harp, but both are incredibly used in both games.
I also judge it based on the types of songs, like background, region, and boss music ar the three categories I look at, and I feel like Silksong’s are all a step above hollow knights in some ways
As a former musician but very much a music geek, musically speaking, Silksong is much better and more interconnected as a whole than HK. That is not to say HK sucks, it is still a very great soundtrack that captures the feeling of the melancholy, abandon, and loneliness that you experience in game, but the tracks are pretty separate with a few exceptions. Silksong is very cohesive as whole with leitmotifs, cues, and many other musical expressions.
Another redditor compared the two akin to listening to a pop album vs an indie band album, and it tells. HK grabs you immediately while Silksong is a very slow burn for many (including myself). Not to say one is better than the other but it's different tastes, experiences, and obviously personal opinions. I found Silksong forgettable in my initial listens but the more I played and listened, the more things I noticed and caught with my ear that in the present, I think it's the better of the two (in my personal opinion).
I agree, as a music theorist. Many tracks in base HK feel unpolished, while Silksong (and the HK DLCs) are the upgrade.
As a whole, it's very clear tracks like False Knight, Reflection, Queen's Gardens were heavily inspired by preexisting music and entire sections are reasonably adjacent in terms of tone, complexity, and mix. I can name you songs that were released before 2010 that are incredibly similar in structure and theme. There are jewels in its soundtrack, but it's obvious (to me) certain tracks had significantly more time put into them. With Silksong, you have tracks that appear very early into the game like Bell Beast, that have similar complexity and evolution as later tracks in HK were. The average track in Silksong is far better than the average track in HK.
I generally don't judge music based on my subjective opinion: I judge based on if it's a unique evolution from its predecessors/inspirations. If I hear a similar section that's just 10% modified, it's still gonna be a pop-off, but it's not musically innovative. Silksong is far more musically innovative compared to Hollow Knight. Even the songs that have musically similar sections have more unique evolutions of its inspiration, comparatively.
Music theory is very much an alternate perspective that many don't come to realize.
The reason why Greenpath gets stuck in your head is because you've heard it before, before you even played Hollow Knight. The human brain generally prefers sequences of sounds you've heard before: it's an evolutionary survival tactic. If a Homo Sapiens heard a male bear, and it attacked them, they would associate the sound of a bear with danger. Humans have evolved so that a female bear is also associated with danger, despite the sound being somewhat different. That's also why Silksong isn't as memorable; the songs are more innovative, so you likely haven't heard similar sequences in the past.
The moment you realize many popular mainstream songs reuse similar sequences from the past is when you are exposed to an entirely new dimension of music.
I think HK has the most discrete soundtrack : at no point I stopped and thought "oh I like this music" while playing, which has happend in Silksong (and other games) for me, yet if you were to remove the music in HK, something would really be missing. It has also been much easier for me to listen to Silksong OST when I m not playing, for me they re tied if you look purely the music (when listenning Spotify), but HK soundtrack fits the game perfectly, in a way not Silksongs does.
That's not an unpopular opinion, you stated facts.
Only nostalgic and emotional fans will say that HK has a better soundtrack.
They only know how to talk about City of Tears. lol
Silksong soundtrack is much more varied, the production is much better. Boss soundtracks are EPIC! Elden Ring level in terms of production. I've been listening Silksong soundtrack on Spotify for months.
SS ost fans glazing choral chambers vs HK ost fans glazing city of tears
And tbh I went back to replay HK after finishing SS and genuinely did enjoy the music more lol. Not that Silksong's ost isn't wonderful, but a lot of it is more ambient and they have the music so quiet by default for some reason??
Mmm i hate to say this one but I agree that it is better, not by far but overall yes, there are some gems in there like bone bottom choral chambers but man they are not as iconic as the first one, even the atmosphere is no longer that gothic, angels egg, tim burton like in the first game
For me Hollow Knight’s music is way more impressionable when I encountered them (I could remember every melody when I only entered the area, whereas in silksong only in certain places I can), but they do have a way more consistent style because of the timbre (which is all digitally made I believe, so no distinguishing qualities close to real-played and recorded music).
For silksong the melody of the song only striked me until Act 2: my favorite scene is when Lace comes and leaves and the husks of choir sprung into life through the silk and the Choral Chamber music start to chant is just ethereal asf. I love & love the Choral Chamber music. Otherwise, Phantom’s music is an absolute banger (I will always LOVE Phantom for her amazing music), Bilewater’s music is fcking beautiful. Otherwise I think Mossholme’s music is fitting to its style. Lace’s is also cool and very fitting for her
But it’s nothing like the buildup and drawing of fate Hollow Knight gives me. I think it’s because the music fits absolutely with the epic storytelling that you can feel the sorry in seeing Pure Vessel’s fate and in seeing through Hallownest’s ruin of its thriving peak in City of Tears, and every area essentially builds into that. White Palace tells a story of a failed dream and the second part of Sealed Vessel tells the story of all the said sacrifices to achieve said dream to no avail, while in the first path the vessels see a mirror of each other to await the final end.
Because Pharloom is more of a divided kingdom that’s always unfortunately ruled by careless and unfair hierarchies designed to exploit its people I have less mixed feelings about it, but rather more pure anger at the injustices. And I think it’s also because essentially Pharloom is just a bunch of different bugs that never saw eye-to-eye that every area feels so different, so there’s bound to be some areas you are not drawn into, whereas in Hallownest you are building up to the central story, so the melancholy in what was lost was integral to all parts of music in Hallownest.
Great analysis. I completely agree. Each OST was well executed for each game's story. While I generally feel SS is a more polished OST overall (live players and just the absence of any weak tracks at all), HK just lent itself to more memorable themes and moments. And like you said, SS had its moments too, like Phantom and Choral Chambers. Another example is just the simplicity of HK vs SS. Dirt Mouth, while quite simple, is easier to hum than Bone bottom. Same with City of Tears vs Choral Chambers. Then there is the nostalgia of HK for many of us. My "Aha" moment, surprisingly, was the music of FORGOTTEN CROSSROADS. Ever since hearing that mysterious music, I knew the game/series was special. So I already knew that going into SS. A lot of people experienced that with Green path or City of Tears, so it's hard for SS to compete with that. In conclusion, Christopher Larkin is incredible.
Other than Bilewater and Choral Chambers, I don’t think any of the music comes close to HK’s soundtrack. I can still hum the tunes to Greenpath, Queens Gardens, Kingdoms Edge, and City of Tesrs purely from memory and I haven’t played HK in five years. They went with a more atmospheric, ambient approach with SS, which isn’t bad, not it’s not as iconic and memorable. The boss fights are fine, but it’s just kind of generic fast strings, and there’s so much else going on sound wise that it kinda gets drowned out. The motifs just aren’t as memorable or present.
Heres my opinion: other than Karmelita And Cogwork dancers I don't really remember any of the OSTs... Unlike Hollow Knight where I can identify all the places just by sound.
Not saying they're bad, obviously they are beautiful, but if we're comparing the two... Then I disagree with you
Ok, after reading some comments and registering to HK I will say that “it’s not even close” is a big stretch . But I will standby saying that silk song has better music, but both Hollow knight and silsong have amazing music.
I don't know if Silksong has as many peaks as Hollow Knight 1. Coral Chambers, Bone Bottom, and the Dancer theme are probably its peaks, and then the overall quality is very high, but the tracks tend to be more ambient. In contrast, Hollow Knight has Green Path, City of Tears, Hollow Knight, Radiance, Grimm Nightmare, and Path of Pain. It's really hard to decide, but I think HW1 is slightly superior because of its more memorable songs.
Awakening, Cogwork Core, Bilewater, Enter Pharloom, Phantom, Lost Lace, Skarrsinger karmelita, strive......
These are just the bangers I can think of the top of my head
I think silksong's soundtrack is better, in sound quality and technicality. But it doesn't hit the same as hollow knight's does.
So objectively, in ways, silksong's is "better", as you would expect after 8 years of added songwriting experience, but when you add to the criteria impact, enhancement of the sense of exploration, character, etc., I have to choose HK as being better. It's at least better in the ways that were most important to my enjoyment of the game.
(Not to say silksong's is bad, many songs are amazing.)
Definitely agree! Love both OSTs, but Far Fields, Bilewater, Choral Chambers, Moss Grotto, High Halls, even Deep Docks and Hunters March are among the most beautiful pieces of music I know.
I don't get the praise that the Choral Chambers soundtrack (and the area as a whole) gets. In the City of Tears, there's a melancholic hymn sang by a damn spirit in this massive, atmospheric, rainy city that has fallen with time, while the Citadel is kind of just a religious destination for the pilgrims. I was more intrigued by even the Cogwork Core tbh.
For me, the City of Tears also felt much more vast compares to the Citadel's cramped rooms and corridors. Entering the Citadel and hearing the theme was much less impressive than the City of Tears was.
Agreed. I know that Hollow Knight has bangers but literally every single track from Silksong is on the level of City of Tears AT THE VERY LEAST in terms of sheer beauty and score, plus the extra orchestra adds a layer of depth that the previous game didn't have the luxury of having
Bilewater, The Mist, Choral Chambers, Blasted Steps, etc, they're all insanely good stage tracks and that's not even including the heavy hitters like Lost Lace, Karmelita, Enter Pharloom and underrated ones like Nyleth's theme
I'm of the opinion that everything Hollow Knight did well, Silksong improves upon tenfold. It's why I love this game so much.
I love both in their own right; Each had their own vibe, for their own worlds that really worked. I think that Silksong suffered from the music being too quiet in exploration, that I didn’t really notice it in some areas compared to Hollow Knight
I think they are both very solid, but in my opinion the heights of the silksong ost don't reach the heights of hollow knight ost (though I prefer Silksong as a game overall).
I think the best way to compare them is by comparing Dirtmouth with Bone Bottom. They both accompany similar settings, and yet Dirtmouth is (in my opinion) a lot more memorable and catchy. A lot more melody and motif driven. I like Bone Bottom too, quite a bit actually, but it's a lot more atmospheric.
My personal issue with Silksong OST is how similar tracks sounds. I probably need to re-listen it out of the game sometimes, but it feels to me like HK just had more variety.
My opinion is that they are less iconic...? Is that the right word. What I'm trying to get at is that I can almost immediately tell what the ost is of when I hear a HK ost.
I'm not the biggest HK fan, yet I can hear it and immediately go, "Yep, that's crystal peaks" or this is "This is greenpath".
Silksong is genuinely amazing in terms of OST, but other than a small handful, I doubt I could name the specific OSTs.
Yes but also they don't hit at the right time last dive lost verdania bikewater and the mist are peak and set the setting and tell a story just listening to it literally got goosebumps the first time
Idk hollow knight has less but overall hits you harder idk why
I noticed Silksong's OST is going for a different vibe most of the time, not taking as much protagonism as in HK, instead I feel like the music is much more interwoven with the gameplay. The live instruments also give it that extra notch of polish that when going back to HK I really noticed the difference. I also think HK has more memorable tracks, but overall I liked Silksong's slightly more. Both are definitely some of the best videogame OSTs out there tho.
You are correct. Christopher Larkin had years, even a decade, between composing the two games, and he has leveled up massively as a composer. There is more breadth, depth, and subtlety in Silksong's score. Hard stop.
People preferring Hollow Knight can do so - but I never see it done on an objective musical scoring basis. It's always nostalgia. Yes, City of Tears is gorgeous. That does not an entire game make.
It's like comparing your first car to any you get later - even if later cars are objectively better, that first is all memories. And that's ok! I'm just very tired of the free glaze people still give Hollow Knight in places where Silksong just soars above it. Musically, there is no overall comparison.
Gang. Here's a thought I've had for a while. Some of the best songs from hollow knight. I'm talking Pure Vessel, Grimm, Nightmare King and Sisters Of Battle. All dlc songs. We haven't seen the best yet.
I find SS’s tracks were less ear-catching than HK’s, until you hit the citadel…
Additionally, HK’s felt a lot more distinct. As in, the moment you hear the soundtrack, you know where / which boss fight that music is from, sometimes down to very specific moments. For example for Mantis Lords, you hear the start of the music and you know the very specific point the 2 gates come down, and when the 2 sides open up to reveal the spikes.
However, one thing that stood out for SS’s, is the variety of instruments and tones used. You get the strings, winds, and the choir, along with a lot more feelings put in. It’s also easier to feel the various sad tone, hero’s tone, angry tone in it…
Everyone is disagreeing with you but I am with you! For every track in Hollow Knight there is a track in Silksong that does the same thing better. It's just so much cleaner and more expressive. It is slower and more ambient though which is why I can understand why people would prefer HK.
Opposite. Hollow Knight's OST is better than Silksong's and it's not even close.
Boss themes are still good but they fumbled the ambiance themes in Silksong. Fleatopia is probably the only one that is on the level of HK ambiance themes for me.
Hollow Knight had more memorable tracks imo. And the leitmotif was more noticeable. Silksong is still great but it seems to focus more on being atmospheric. Most area tracks aren't as good as the ones in HK and some bosses have music that was actually a bit underwhelming (Fourth Chorus, Nyleth and Last Judge for example)
Strive, Pharloom, Last Dive, Red Memory, Lace, Karmelita, Cogwork Dancers and Bellhart are obviously great, Widow, Hunters Trail, Bilewater and Cogwork Core were unexpected surprises
I might give you better but "isn't even close" is crazy.
City of Tears is comparable to even the best of Silksong if not better. I love Widow, Phantom and Bellheart a lot but the every time I listen to CoT, I get transported back to the first time I reached the Hollow Knight monument and the vocals popped in. Transcendental.
Personally, Choral Chambers captured that exact same thing for me in skong. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's better than City of Tears, but it's definitely on par.
For me it's high halls
I don't get the obsession with the Choral Chambers, honestly. City of Tears is telling a story of kingdom long gone, of events that have transpired, of lives of the old inhabitants. It's deeply personal.
Choral Chambers is just like "it's a religious thingy" to me.
Also had to look it up on yt to even remember how does it sound.
I had the exact feeling you described for CoT while hearing Chor C for the first time.
The fact it sounded religious to you I find telling, because that fits into the lore of what The Citadel was designed to be. The Citadel had a deeply religious hierarchy.
Not trying to rage bait, just to offer a different way to look at C.C.
Nothing in Silksong OST reminds me of Hallownest theme song though.
Well it does fit the theme, I'm not denying that. My point was more about depth - how much can you tell from it.
Although, it is quite subjective, I agree. Maybe I simply like CoT more musically and thus it stimulates imagination better for me.
Cheers mate!
That's what most of HK ost is. Every area's theme is telling an area that is long gone. But the thing about silksong's ost is that it shows that the place is still alive but not on its peak and most of the area's ost tells the story of how dangerous silksong's world is.
I love both but I adored City of Tears the first time I heard it, super emotional moment entering the city, seeing the rain, and hearing that track. Choral Chambers though almost felt ringtone-like the first time I heard it. I like it much more now but it's not CoT level. I think the Bilewater ost is comparable to City of Tears though.
Edit, to the people downvoting this, it's just my opinion. You are entitled to love whatever song you want. If Reflection is your favorite piece than that's valid because the whole soundtrack is great and people relate to different pieces in different ways
Bilewater is like the modern sticker bush symphony. It is beauty and longing that follows you in an incredibly oppressive hellscape. I love the sentimentality of city of tears or greenpath but Bilewater resonates in a way that is special. At least to me.
I switch the music off at Coral Chambers because the melody gets stale after playing for so long. City of Tears exactly the opposite.
Lmao that's just bias man, city of tears is even less complicated than choral chambers. It's a way more repetitive piano number
Yeah that take is laughable
I personally dont think anything from silksong can reach me emotionally like Sealed Vessel and the Path of Pain ost did.
Fair honestly. I think it’s my favorite piece of music in any game from how it’s used in the abyss climb
Yes!
sister of the void has gripped my brain in an undescribable way
cogwork core
Nothing in any future TC game could top city of tears imo
Lowkey, I think Sealed Vessel is also a great contender for best music in HK.
I mean, if anything was gonna top it, it's the goddamn final* boss music.
*cof cof
The HK OST was actually in my top 5 favourite albums on Spotify Wrapped this year, mostly from City of Tears and Sealed Vessel.
Greenpath and kingdom's edge are amazing too.
Dirtmouth is my favorite chill track from HK tbh
Larkin’s entire soundtrack for that game got me back into studying game music with a burning passion lol
The more you understand music production and composition, the more you will understand the gap between the two. It’s not Hollow Knight’s music is not good, it’s just Silksong’s music is too godly.
Major themes just as beautifully catchy as HK + Full orchestra + more complex layers of composition + double amount of tracks = it’s just so much better.
You can hear the choir getting louder and more pronounced as you travel up through the Citadel. When you're in the bench room of cog work core the main melody of the area will play but very muted. Those are just the two I can think of but there's definitely a very varied soundscape throughout each area that makes it feel very dynamic.
I really like the HK OST but I can't think of any area in that game that does that. But comparing the two isn't super worthwhile to me? Because TC took what they learned in HK and applied it to Skong to improve it. We don't get Silk Song without Hollow Knight.
I think part of the reason why City of Tears is so fondly remembered is because it's one of the only pieces in the original Hollow Knight that does this.
Full orchestration and more complexity might make it better from a technical standpoint but what actually sounds better to people is purely subjective.
👍
This, as a composer and classical music enjoyer I find Silksong’s OST to be more intricate and enjoyable, not to say the first game’s is bad in the slightest
the first game has 'bouncier' rhythms and melodies, makes it easier to imprint, combine that with an 8 year headstart to create nostalgia and its easy to see why people dont like Silksongs OST as much
Also melodically it’s generally more memorable
yep, I noticed when playing the games I pay more attention to HKs soundtrack compared to Silksongs
but if im listening to the OSTs on their own when im driving and such, Silksongs soundtrack is way more interesting to listen to
I agree that Silksong's soundtrack is much more complex and layered, but I think that Hollow Knights's soundtrack is more catchy overall - in large part because of the simplicity. Complex songs are more interesting, but less immediately memorizable/earworm-y.
Agreed, I think people are on the nostalgia copium
Nope, first games music had more personality, individuality and better theming. City of Tears will always be one of my favourite OSTs.
That’s the thing. The first game had simpler melodies, which made some of them more memorable than Silksong’s. It’s not out of the question that Silksong’s music is more advanced, but the styles are bit different to really compare them outright.
I think... this is probably my take with Silksong in general?
I dunno, there's just something about the way Hallownest feels that hits harder than Silksong does. And I don't necessarily know if this is just nostalgia speaking because I replayed Hollow Knight literal moments before really starting to dig into Silksong, so I was directly comparing the two.
It's still great, but I find myself preferring Hallownest and some hard-to-define aspect of it that I'm missing from Pharloom.
For me the biggest difference is how Hollow Knight is ambiguous. Theres a world thats mostly nature-ous, it has a story, which is pretty obscure itself and isnt shoved in your face or forced on you. Aside from that you just explore, enjoy and understand it freely.
Silksongs world on the other hand is all industrial. Mostly every area is built, with some sort of mechanical robot-like themes or other similar things and a story thats so in your face it feels like every other story-focused game. That type of world just doesnt hit the same for me. Wish it was more nature-y.
I hardly even noticed Silksong’s music until I hit Chroal Chambers (which is AMAZING, to its credit).
But for Hollow Knight, Greenpath was amazing, the Fungal Song was great, City of Tears is incredible and probably the best/most memorable in the game…
Basically every song for every region is almost immediately memorable.
Silksong’s music is definitely good when it’s good, but so much of it didn’t stand out to me at all, to the point where once I hit Choral Chambers and was hit with such a great song, I noticed I couldn’t remember a single song from other regions, and had to go revisit them (I think Blasted Wastes ended up sticking out to me the most).
My other comment was the exact same as yours, i only noticed the music at Choral Chambers and i also thought about how i didnt notice the previous areas music.
I also think that the game giving you sprint so early on it ruined my ability to notice details as i just sprint from enemy to enemy.
I remembered 4 tracks by the time i got the Choral Chambers: Lace, the generic arena/boss battle theme, Widow, and Blasted Steps. Act 2 has some good songs too other than Choral Chambers, overall the OST had a good amount of memorable tracks.
Yeah, both OSTs had absolute bangers, but I'm honestly struggling to remember a lot of themes from Silksong save the handful of obvious picks that truly stood out. I suppose you could argue that's a good thing that the music so seamlessly blended into the area, but I don't see it that way.
Might be preference. I liked HK's music on the foreground a lot. Every area stood out, and the silent moments were really silent.
With Skong, I wondered if I had accudentally turned off the music😅 I really missed that 'feel' HK's areas had, and honestly didn't get it from Skong.
But I also see why others might prefer Skong's music.
Agreed, i prefer when the music suits the zone, but stands out and makes an impression. The original game doing that with music that was mostly simple is what makes it good for me.
HK OST is great but I think it has too much virtual instruments, while in silksong they probably had more money and made more music with real instruments and singer.
I feel city of tears is a good example. When you listen in the game I don’t feel it as powerful and magical as people say, until you find the singer spirit that sings the same melody, which is heart melting
did you just slander City of Tears off with your head
Choral chambers > city of tears … sorry bro
On par, but very different type and style and city of tears hits while choral chamber you just listen. Overrall HKs good soundtracks > Silksongs good soundtracks.
agreed
Now that I think about it it may be a stretch saying it’s not even close but I do think SS songs are a lot better imo
I'm in the same camp as OP, but a lot of it is because, as much as I loved HK, I never understood all of the hype for the ost. It was good atmospheric music and worked perfectly in the game, but not the kind of music I would ever go out of my way to look up.
Silksong, on the other hand...my YouTube music rewind had a shocking number of silksong tracks despite the game only coming out in September. I was obsessed with the strings in some of these songs. Only other games with OSTs that hooked me this well were the Doom and Nier games.
My problem with skong ost is that, as opposed to HK, k didn't notice it most of the time. Idk if it was too quiet or that some of the tracks were more like ambients or something. When it comes to soundtracks of areas specifically, I pretty much only remember cogwork core.
It was a bit better when I turned down all other sounds in the game, but there were still times where the music was either not noticable or not there.
I did listen to the ost separately tho and it's absolutely amazing, but I didn't really hear it in-game. (And before you ask, it's definitely not a me issue because the music in HK was and still is very noticable to me)
Cogwork Core was amazing. But it left me wishing more areas' music was like it. I felt they were too ambient for my tastes, or just after finishing HK it left me wanting that same prominent musical experience, rather than just background support.
On average I think Silksong soundtrack is much better. Though nothing has yet defeated Sealed Vessel and White palace for me.
Agree on both points. Sealed vessel is one of my favorite pieces of music ever, in any context.
I was actually a little disappointed at the Lost Lace theme, purely because I was coming from the magnificence of the Sealed Vessel theme.
Last Dive is EPIC though.
Whoa, I never bothered to search that one out and listen to it on its own. It's so good. I think I may have found my new favorite, or second favorite, track in the game.
This ost will forever be legendary, don't forget it was the soundtrack of the trailer where we got the release date, one of the most epic moments
Wow, Lost Lace is one of my favorite tracks from Silksong. It is so emotional, rich and tells the story perfectly imo. I think both Sealed Vessel and the Lost Lace did great as a final boss music. Give it some time
Lost Lace is waaaay better than Sealed Vessel imo. The intro alone beats it
100%. It’s up there with some of the best of John Williams for capturing an iconic moment in the game. It’s literal musical storytelling.
I don’t know, there are high highs, but there is also some blasé stuff on SS OST. Also I watched a review that mentioned how there were more atmospheric tracks that don’t have a really strong melody or identity or sense of place, and I tend to agree (The Marrow springs to mind).
More good battle themes on SS than HK, but the OST is also twice as long, so I’m not sure if it’s better pound-for-pound. Also, the HK main theme is still better than SS.
I’d really need to go through track-by-track to really decide, but I don’t think it’s readily obvious which is better either way.
on your point about the marrow… i don’t think the music was helped by the fact that the marrow, far fields, and deep docks all kind of blended together.
Yeah, nothing beats Sealed Vessel, but in general Silksong has a better soundtrack
duuuu duuuu dee dee duuuu duuuu
Not even close is a crazy statement
My opinion of silksong's OST is that it doesnt reach the peak of HK's best tracks, but it is much more consistent in quality overall and throughout all of its tracks.
This is how I feel as well.
This is how I feel about almost every aspect of silksong to be honest.
Did anyone else find most of the act 1 areas to have underwhelming tracks compared to hollow knight early game areas? The marrow, deep docks, far fields, and greymoor are fine tracks and have grown on me bit by bit but lack the impact of tracks like the crossroads, greenpath, and fungal wastes. Anyone else feel this?
Completely agree.
I was excited walking through Moss Grotto initially. I think it must have been an early area and they approached it with the same philosophy as HK.
But I can barely remember so many areas music.
Which is a shame because you can tell he's improved so much as an artist. Hopefully he goes hard in whatever DLC comes out next.
I think the tracks fit the areas they play in, in both games. The atmosphere lends itself to the music. The games have different atmospheres. So the musicality as a whole is different. You’re allowed to enjoy the SS OST more but you’re also allowed to be wrong.
/j
I mean yeah I can be wrong. What track is better is all opinion and not fact. But I feel like Christopher Larkin took it 5 steps further with this track
Well yeah, bonus experience and bonus orchestra, Silksong has an objectively grander OST in terms of scope
The Choral Chambers music made it a truly magical experience.
When I started played silksong, in my first 30 minutes I realized the sound effects were too loud and the soundtrack too low. I change the volume settings and never looked back. I think people that prefer HK OST probably didn’t do
I didn't notice this myself, but I was lucky enough that someone like you pointed this out to me early in my playthrough. So much better after adjusting the SFX down.
We tried this, and we also tried each area with the music off to see if it was better or worse with just the ambient noise. Some zones worked better with the latter for us tbh. Unfortunately though, even when we’d go through, and decide a lot of the music in zones was better than we initially thought, we’d go back to HK, and it would just blow us away again every time. My biggest issue with SS personally is just that half the music in zones just feels out of place. We went through, and with most zones’ tracks, we could name a different zone that it would’ve felt better in. Honestly, even outside of the music, a lot of the transitions between areas, both music wise and general scenery was just jarring compared to HK. The transitions in HK were magical, whereas SS seemed to just change completely with a zone line. We love SS, don’t get me wrong. And there are obvious improvements. But it’s just made the original feel that much more amazing to us.
What songs would you say are out of place?
I’ll go back through and come up with a breakdown when I have time.
Sounds good. There were a few that seeemed a little out of place at first to me like Bilewater. But then I realized what they were doing with Bilewater. The song is hauntingly beautiful, almost like it's mourning the place it used to be before the Citadel dumped all their waste there and ruined it. Seth seemed like a weird battle song at first too, and then I read up on the backstory of the kid who created Seth. Now that song hits a bit differently. I can't really think of any others that seemed out of place, but you can probably shed some light on things I'm overlooking
This might explain my take. I felt HK's OST hit me way harder WHILE playing, but when I listen to either OST on its own, SS is just so peak - each and every track is at least very good if not a banger. I need to turn up the music on SS... Phantom, on the contrary, hit hard for sure in game. Others did as well, just not as consistently as they did in HK.
No I did, I always mess around with the soundsettings whenever I get a new game untill it's to my liking, I just don't think most of the Silksong tracks are particularly special or memorable.
I did the same but I still prefer the HK by a wide margin, SS didn't do anything for me for technical reasons that I won't get too deep into unless there's some composition nerd to talk it out
I wanna knoww 🤚
Yeah, THIS so much
The game has the soundtrack too low by default. I didn't even recognize Enter Pharloom when I played that section. You're doing yourself a disservice by not lowering the other sounds
I think they're both great.
Green path + city of tears > Silksong
Depends if you prefer violin or piano and harp, I think. Most of HK best songs have piano, harp, or both as their main instrument. For obvious reasons, Christopher Larkin went with violin as the primary instrument for silk song.
I personally prefer HK music, but if you really like violin, I can see preferring Silksong
It's a bit more than that. Strings are the Weaver motif in Silksong. The way those strings are played, and on which instruments, all are an important piece of the storytelling.
Hollow Knight has its motifs as well, yes. But overall they're simpler and just...less. The composer really did mature (and have more time) for Silksong.
Sadly none of the silk song music gets stuck in my head, where as the forgotten crossroads, town, green path, city of tears, crystal palace, they all live in my head rent free.
There are highlights like Bilewater and Choral Chambers and Moss Grotto. But I think a lot of the area themes are very forgettable. Like maybe as many as half of them just feel like ambient noise.
HK OST was so much better in that regard.
I like Hollow Knight's music more, but I'm ok with you having your own opinion.
"isn't even close" is outrageous
I mean, Christopher Larkin had live performers to work with for the hollow knight DLC and Silksong OST. He didn't have that for the original HK tracks
From looking at some of the comments here, I think the most "objective" conclusion is this imo:
Silksong has better combat tracks(or at least, more good combat tracks than HK)
HK has better ambient/background tracks
This is kinda what I'm getting here. I see city of tears thrown around a lot, and off of the top of my head I can think of green path & crystal peak as other memorable HK tracks. In contrast, I can barely think of any ambient/location tracks from SS(Cogwork core, I guess?)
Meanwhile, from HK there are some really good combat tracks(sisters of battle, sealed vessel, Grimm...), but Silksong just has more tracks that are good/great(Cogwork dancers, lace, Widow, karmelita, hell I'd argue khann... There are more, but I'm not going to talk about all of them mostly because there's so many bosses lmao).
This take is as hot as the sun
im on the complete other end of the spectrum but an opinion is an opinion nonetheless
Nah.
SS is a really great OST but I like almost every track in HK more
Idk maybe its because i spent so much less time on any given area of silksong, and have only done 1 playthrough so far, but i feel like silksongs ost is a lot less memorable than hollow knights
Nahhh
I think HK's OST is constantly crazy (except for Deepnest's theme fuck deepnest)
And like, we've got CoT, Sealed Vessel, Truth, beauty and Hatred etc
While I’m still firmly on the HK side so far, all of these discussions feel somewhat pointless until all of Silksong is out. If people were comparing everything base game to base game, it would be one thing, but that just hasn’t been the case. Silksong isn’t done yet.
Delet this >:(
Unpopular? No. Its split pretty even actually
Now "not even close" is when it gets hot
Eh- I liked silksong’s tracks but I don’t remember any of them. There are plenty I can replay in my head from HK like dirtmouth, city of tears, fungal wastes, soul sanctum, resting grounds, nkg, etc
Idk, none of the songs ever really gripped me a much as the first game. They're all great songs, but idk if they're better
I kinda disagree, I feel like HK OST is overall a better album as a whole since is really consistent However there are some tracks for Silksong better than the HK ones, but the overall as an album is a little bit more lacking sin HK OST is really great
What are you talking about lacking sin? We have sinner's road! There's so much sin in silksong I would give up my life savings of rosaries to confess them
Lmao, sorry it was a typo for since
When silksong dlc comes out it will be even better
When a Redditor says “iTs n0t eVeN cl0sE” I immediately disregard their opinion.
Same here. Some people exaggerate so much when it comes to simply sharing their opinions. You can tell me you love a soundtrack without making it sound like you want to start an argument
Exactly. Both are amazing and both are done by the same composer for similar games thematically. It’s understandable if someone prefers something but the exaggerations and oversimplifications when people try to communicate their “hot takes” is exhausting 🥱
Happy cake day
Thanks!
Eeeeeeeeh.
First "not even close" is certainly a take.
Here's what I think : just like the visuals, Silksong tried to blend more with itself ; when TC made HK, they "randomly" put up locations, enemies etc next to each other and they said to themselves "we'll make it work together", and they did.
But I highly doubt they went with the same approach for SS, which results in visuals and musics to maybe be more coherent as a whole, for the entirety of the kingdom I mean, but in return, some of it might stick less than what HK did because of a less contrasted experience from one place to another. I firmly believe that's the truth to be honest.
In the end it doesn't matter, both are amazing and valid ways of doing things.
The worst is worse, the better is MUCH better. City of tears, queens gardens, enter hallownest and pure vessel absolutely blow anything silksong has to offer out of the water FOR ME.
Add Dirtmouth, White Palace to that list.
Maybe im a doomer, but stepping into Dirtmouth to that melancholy OST sets the vibe too well and i love that type of OST. And then theres greenpath, or my favourite, City of Tears, or all the late game bosses OSTs, they just hit. In SS it felt like there was too much going on in most tracks, HKs tracks did simplicity well, but nothing in SS even made an impression on me or made me care to listen other than Choral Chambers OST. SS OSTs were just like any other game to me and ngl, with the whole 'find discs to play' at that one bug under songclave i thought we'd get something as good as Quixotic in Lies of P for example, which despite being hidden behind a random casette is one of my favourite OSTs of all time, but it was all gibberish garbage in Silksongs version of that...
The one thing that makes Silksong's OST better is the fact they were recorded with higher quality instruments as opposed to HK's more digital soundscape.
Am I a noob for not understanding what OST means? Can we put the full word into brackets, please?
Original Sound Track. I don't think you'll get anyone to spell this out without asking though, since it's been around forever and is commonly used. No worries though, can't know everything.
Yeah, that ain’t changing. OST is older than the internet.
I might consider agreeing with you if there were bells in at least the bellbeast theme. I love Christopher Larkin as much as the next guy, but for a game themed around bells there are pitifully few in the music
Silksong has most of my favorite individual songs, benefits massively from the live orchestra, and has IMO no “mid” tunes to speak of (Strive >>> Decisive Battle). They’re all so well suited to their moments. Choral Chambers evokes pure grandeur and relief, Widow is an absolute blast, the atmospheric tunes like Cogwork Core and Deep Docks are perfect, and Lost Lace may not quite edge out Sealed Vessel but it’s easily one of my favorite final boss tracks of all time.
But Hollow Knight does a better job of creating a cohesive whole with unique themes carried throughout. Think of the Dirtmouth melody carrying through from Forgotten Crossroads, to Greenpath, to the Fungal Wastes. Or the simple and elegant City of Tears theme becoming ominous and ostentatious in the Soul Sanctum. Or the White Palace motif, and how Hornet’s theme develops on that melody and turns it into something all her own. Or the main title theme showing up anywhere we see the Vessels, always signaling some sense of incompleteness and emptiness, until the true ending cutscene where it finally resolves.
That’s not to say that Silksong’s OST is worse at telling its story, only that it’s a more scattered story with a more cosmopolitan world. If there is consistency between zones, it has more to do with the timbre and instrumental palette chosen than the melodies - which are always the star of the show in Hollow Knight.
I think they’re both great. Larkin clearly had more to work with in the second game, but there’s something to be said for innovation from limitation, too.
Great take. We did get the Dies irae theme throughout a lot of the SS OST but I agree the theming in HK was so masterful.
How do you evaluate one OST being better than the other one?
Is it by personal opinion, are you a musician or other kind of sound professional? Is it by how much they match the visual art? Is it simply how it makes you feel?
I do it based on melodies, how well it fits the location, emotions, and overall sound, but also I do play instruments and am trying (large emphasis on trying) to learn music theory so I do try and analyze the music.
Silksong and Hollow Knight for me just captures a lot more emotion and makes me feel like I am the one in these environments, but I feel like silksong does it so much better compared to Hollow Knight, and there is a personal preference becauseI really prefer the orchestral sounds and tones compared to piano and harp, but both are incredibly used in both games.
I also judge it based on the types of songs, like background, region, and boss music ar the three categories I look at, and I feel like Silksong’s are all a step above hollow knights in some ways
Nah just cause of how iconic hollow knights ost is its way better
As a former musician but very much a music geek, musically speaking, Silksong is much better and more interconnected as a whole than HK. That is not to say HK sucks, it is still a very great soundtrack that captures the feeling of the melancholy, abandon, and loneliness that you experience in game, but the tracks are pretty separate with a few exceptions. Silksong is very cohesive as whole with leitmotifs, cues, and many other musical expressions.
Another redditor compared the two akin to listening to a pop album vs an indie band album, and it tells. HK grabs you immediately while Silksong is a very slow burn for many (including myself). Not to say one is better than the other but it's different tastes, experiences, and obviously personal opinions. I found Silksong forgettable in my initial listens but the more I played and listened, the more things I noticed and caught with my ear that in the present, I think it's the better of the two (in my personal opinion).
I agree, as a music theorist. Many tracks in base HK feel unpolished, while Silksong (and the HK DLCs) are the upgrade.
As a whole, it's very clear tracks like False Knight, Reflection, Queen's Gardens were heavily inspired by preexisting music and entire sections are reasonably adjacent in terms of tone, complexity, and mix. I can name you songs that were released before 2010 that are incredibly similar in structure and theme. There are jewels in its soundtrack, but it's obvious (to me) certain tracks had significantly more time put into them. With Silksong, you have tracks that appear very early into the game like Bell Beast, that have similar complexity and evolution as later tracks in HK were. The average track in Silksong is far better than the average track in HK.
I generally don't judge music based on my subjective opinion: I judge based on if it's a unique evolution from its predecessors/inspirations. If I hear a similar section that's just 10% modified, it's still gonna be a pop-off, but it's not musically innovative. Silksong is far more musically innovative compared to Hollow Knight. Even the songs that have musically similar sections have more unique evolutions of its inspiration, comparatively.
Music theory is very much an alternate perspective that many don't come to realize.
The reason why Greenpath gets stuck in your head is because you've heard it before, before you even played Hollow Knight. The human brain generally prefers sequences of sounds you've heard before: it's an evolutionary survival tactic. If a Homo Sapiens heard a male bear, and it attacked them, they would associate the sound of a bear with danger. Humans have evolved so that a female bear is also associated with danger, despite the sound being somewhat different. That's also why Silksong isn't as memorable; the songs are more innovative, so you likely haven't heard similar sequences in the past.
The moment you realize many popular mainstream songs reuse similar sequences from the past is when you are exposed to an entirely new dimension of music.
I think HK has the most discrete soundtrack : at no point I stopped and thought "oh I like this music" while playing, which has happend in Silksong (and other games) for me, yet if you were to remove the music in HK, something would really be missing. It has also been much easier for me to listen to Silksong OST when I m not playing, for me they re tied if you look purely the music (when listenning Spotify), but HK soundtrack fits the game perfectly, in a way not Silksongs does.
Nahhhhhhh
HK OST clears easily
That's not an unpopular opinion, you stated facts.
Only nostalgic and emotional fans will say that HK has a better soundtrack.
They only know how to talk about City of Tears. lol
Silksong soundtrack is much more varied, the production is much better. Boss soundtracks are EPIC! Elden Ring level in terms of production. I've been listening Silksong soundtrack on Spotify for months.
SS ost fans glazing choral chambers vs HK ost fans glazing city of tears
And tbh I went back to replay HK after finishing SS and genuinely did enjoy the music more lol. Not that Silksong's ost isn't wonderful, but a lot of it is more ambient and they have the music so quiet by default for some reason??
What a stupid take
I went from hollow knight to silksong in less than one day. Is that long enough for nostalgia to kick in? 🤔
I don’t think I can agree with that. Once you notice it, the game is FULL of the same musical gimmick over and over again.
Better instrumentals, but not better musical themes imo
Two words.
Choral chambers.
Two words in addition to your two words:
The Choir
Two words in addition to your two words:
I'm hungry
Damn dude, I hope you get to eat something tasty!
Mmm i hate to say this one but I agree that it is better, not by far but overall yes, there are some gems in there like bone bottom choral chambers but man they are not as iconic as the first one, even the atmosphere is no longer that gothic, angels egg, tim burton like in the first game
I've listened to them both so many times, and I couldn't pick a favourite if I had to.
For me Hollow Knight’s music is way more impressionable when I encountered them (I could remember every melody when I only entered the area, whereas in silksong only in certain places I can), but they do have a way more consistent style because of the timbre (which is all digitally made I believe, so no distinguishing qualities close to real-played and recorded music).
For silksong the melody of the song only striked me until Act 2: my favorite scene is when Lace comes and leaves and the husks of choir sprung into life through the silk and the Choral Chamber music start to chant is just ethereal asf. I love & love the Choral Chamber music. Otherwise, Phantom’s music is an absolute banger (I will always LOVE Phantom for her amazing music), Bilewater’s music is fcking beautiful. Otherwise I think Mossholme’s music is fitting to its style. Lace’s is also cool and very fitting for her
But it’s nothing like the buildup and drawing of fate Hollow Knight gives me. I think it’s because the music fits absolutely with the epic storytelling that you can feel the sorry in seeing Pure Vessel’s fate and in seeing through Hallownest’s ruin of its thriving peak in City of Tears, and every area essentially builds into that. White Palace tells a story of a failed dream and the second part of Sealed Vessel tells the story of all the said sacrifices to achieve said dream to no avail, while in the first path the vessels see a mirror of each other to await the final end.
Because Pharloom is more of a divided kingdom that’s always unfortunately ruled by careless and unfair hierarchies designed to exploit its people I have less mixed feelings about it, but rather more pure anger at the injustices. And I think it’s also because essentially Pharloom is just a bunch of different bugs that never saw eye-to-eye that every area feels so different, so there’s bound to be some areas you are not drawn into, whereas in Hallownest you are building up to the central story, so the melancholy in what was lost was integral to all parts of music in Hallownest.
Great analysis. I completely agree. Each OST was well executed for each game's story. While I generally feel SS is a more polished OST overall (live players and just the absence of any weak tracks at all), HK just lent itself to more memorable themes and moments. And like you said, SS had its moments too, like Phantom and Choral Chambers. Another example is just the simplicity of HK vs SS. Dirt Mouth, while quite simple, is easier to hum than Bone bottom. Same with City of Tears vs Choral Chambers. Then there is the nostalgia of HK for many of us. My "Aha" moment, surprisingly, was the music of FORGOTTEN CROSSROADS. Ever since hearing that mysterious music, I knew the game/series was special. So I already knew that going into SS. A lot of people experienced that with Green path or City of Tears, so it's hard for SS to compete with that. In conclusion, Christopher Larkin is incredible.
Other than Bilewater and Choral Chambers, I don’t think any of the music comes close to HK’s soundtrack. I can still hum the tunes to Greenpath, Queens Gardens, Kingdoms Edge, and City of Tesrs purely from memory and I haven’t played HK in five years. They went with a more atmospheric, ambient approach with SS, which isn’t bad, not it’s not as iconic and memorable. The boss fights are fine, but it’s just kind of generic fast strings, and there’s so much else going on sound wise that it kinda gets drowned out. The motifs just aren’t as memorable or present.
Heres my opinion: other than Karmelita And Cogwork dancers I don't really remember any of the OSTs... Unlike Hollow Knight where I can identify all the places just by sound.
Not saying they're bad, obviously they are beautiful, but if we're comparing the two... Then I disagree with you
It’s actually the opposite.
You're right in that it's not even close, but not in silksong's favor
Ok, after reading some comments and registering to HK I will say that “it’s not even close” is a big stretch . But I will standby saying that silk song has better music, but both Hollow knight and silsong have amazing music.
I can't really decide which I even generally like more, since they have such different feelings.
On average, silksong OST may be better. However non of them is better than sealed vessel
I don't know if Silksong has as many peaks as Hollow Knight 1. Coral Chambers, Bone Bottom, and the Dancer theme are probably its peaks, and then the overall quality is very high, but the tracks tend to be more ambient. In contrast, Hollow Knight has Green Path, City of Tears, Hollow Knight, Radiance, Grimm Nightmare, and Path of Pain. It's really hard to decide, but I think HW1 is slightly superior because of its more memorable songs.
Awakening, Cogwork Core, Bilewater, Enter Pharloom, Phantom, Lost Lace, Skarrsinger karmelita, strive...... These are just the bangers I can think of the top of my head
I like the fight tracks in SS better, but the ambiance of hk is pretty top. Citadel ambiance is there tho
When I think of this series music, basically all that comes to mind is City of Tears and Widow's theme. So I guess they're pretty on par to me
Though I don't agree personally, it's not an unpopular opinion
I would agree but there's no song in Skong that matches the energy of NKG. That song will always slap
I'd say they're on par for me. Silksong is high octane and hk is somber.
there is nothing in hollow knight that made me buckwild for gears like cogwork core did
We should start defining our words.
It creates unneeded misunderstanding without it.
I think silksong's soundtrack is better, in sound quality and technicality. But it doesn't hit the same as hollow knight's does.
So objectively, in ways, silksong's is "better", as you would expect after 8 years of added songwriting experience, but when you add to the criteria impact, enhancement of the sense of exploration, character, etc., I have to choose HK as being better. It's at least better in the ways that were most important to my enjoyment of the game.
(Not to say silksong's is bad, many songs are amazing.)
Nonsense. Silksong OST relies more on the sound of the instruments rather than the music. Hollow Knight's OST is FAR superior.
Bone Bottom is the best track in either game and goes toe to toe with the best of Expedition 33, which says a lot.
silksong is just orchestrated better in general
Definitely agree! Love both OSTs, but Far Fields, Bilewater, Choral Chambers, Moss Grotto, High Halls, even Deep Docks and Hunters March are among the most beautiful pieces of music I know.
I don't get the praise that the Choral Chambers soundtrack (and the area as a whole) gets. In the City of Tears, there's a melancholic hymn sang by a damn spirit in this massive, atmospheric, rainy city that has fallen with time, while the Citadel is kind of just a religious destination for the pilgrims. I was more intrigued by even the Cogwork Core tbh.
For me, the City of Tears also felt much more vast compares to the Citadel's cramped rooms and corridors. Entering the Citadel and hearing the theme was much less impressive than the City of Tears was.
I liked HK more.
Agreed. I know that Hollow Knight has bangers but literally every single track from Silksong is on the level of City of Tears AT THE VERY LEAST in terms of sheer beauty and score, plus the extra orchestra adds a layer of depth that the previous game didn't have the luxury of having
Bilewater, The Mist, Choral Chambers, Blasted Steps, etc, they're all insanely good stage tracks and that's not even including the heavy hitters like Lost Lace, Karmelita, Enter Pharloom and underrated ones like Nyleth's theme
I'm of the opinion that everything Hollow Knight did well, Silksong improves upon tenfold. It's why I love this game so much.
ok
bad opinion but sure
I actually agree
Why is high halls underrated? Never see it mentioned
nothing in silksong compares to the sealed vessel full ost in silksong. true final boss ost in silksong is close but honestly lacks tragedy.
I love both in their own right; Each had their own vibe, for their own worlds that really worked. I think that Silksong suffered from the music being too quiet in exploration, that I didn’t really notice it in some areas compared to Hollow Knight
I think there are individual tracks that are better than all of Hollow Knight’s ost, but not overall.
Soul sanctum CLEARS
I agree OP
I think they are both very solid, but in my opinion the heights of the silksong ost don't reach the heights of hollow knight ost (though I prefer Silksong as a game overall).
I think the best way to compare them is by comparing Dirtmouth with Bone Bottom. They both accompany similar settings, and yet Dirtmouth is (in my opinion) a lot more memorable and catchy. A lot more melody and motif driven. I like Bone Bottom too, quite a bit actually, but it's a lot more atmospheric.
Similarly,
Green Path >>>> Moss Grotto Hornet > Lace
Love both soundtracks though
I do think it's better but not "not even close" better. Something that is "nit even close better" is Abyss climb
My personal issue with Silksong OST is how similar tracks sounds. I probably need to re-listen it out of the game sometimes, but it feels to me like HK just had more variety.
Hollow Knight is better by a mile. Can't remember a single tune from Silksong.
My opinion is that they are less iconic...? Is that the right word. What I'm trying to get at is that I can almost immediately tell what the ost is of when I hear a HK ost.
I'm not the biggest HK fan, yet I can hear it and immediately go, "Yep, that's crystal peaks" or this is "This is greenpath".
Silksong is genuinely amazing in terms of OST, but other than a small handful, I doubt I could name the specific OSTs.
Yes but also they don't hit at the right time last dive lost verdania bikewater and the mist are peak and set the setting and tell a story just listening to it literally got goosebumps the first time
Idk hollow knight has less but overall hits you harder idk why
You’re nuts
Should I know what OST is? Because I don’t.
I noticed Silksong's OST is going for a different vibe most of the time, not taking as much protagonism as in HK, instead I feel like the music is much more interwoven with the gameplay. The live instruments also give it that extra notch of polish that when going back to HK I really noticed the difference. I also think HK has more memorable tracks, but overall I liked Silksong's slightly more. Both are definitely some of the best videogame OSTs out there tho.
You are correct. Christopher Larkin had years, even a decade, between composing the two games, and he has leveled up massively as a composer. There is more breadth, depth, and subtlety in Silksong's score. Hard stop.
People preferring Hollow Knight can do so - but I never see it done on an objective musical scoring basis. It's always nostalgia. Yes, City of Tears is gorgeous. That does not an entire game make.
It's like comparing your first car to any you get later - even if later cars are objectively better, that first is all memories. And that's ok! I'm just very tired of the free glaze people still give Hollow Knight in places where Silksong just soars above it. Musically, there is no overall comparison.
Gang. Here's a thought I've had for a while. Some of the best songs from hollow knight. I'm talking Pure Vessel, Grimm, Nightmare King and Sisters Of Battle. All dlc songs. We haven't seen the best yet.
Is there any news on vinyls? Id love to get it and probably hollow knights too
It’s better than the main game but Godhome my goodness.
I find SS’s tracks were less ear-catching than HK’s, until you hit the citadel…
Additionally, HK’s felt a lot more distinct. As in, the moment you hear the soundtrack, you know where / which boss fight that music is from, sometimes down to very specific moments. For example for Mantis Lords, you hear the start of the music and you know the very specific point the 2 gates come down, and when the 2 sides open up to reveal the spikes.
However, one thing that stood out for SS’s, is the variety of instruments and tones used. You get the strings, winds, and the choir, along with a lot more feelings put in. It’s also easier to feel the various sad tone, hero’s tone, angry tone in it…
Everyone is disagreeing with you but I am with you! For every track in Hollow Knight there is a track in Silksong that does the same thing better. It's just so much cleaner and more expressive. It is slower and more ambient though which is why I can understand why people would prefer HK.
Opposite. Hollow Knight's OST is better than Silksong's and it's not even close.
Boss themes are still good but they fumbled the ambiance themes in Silksong. Fleatopia is probably the only one that is on the level of HK ambiance themes for me.
Choral chambers? Bellhart?
Higher highs and lower lows
Hollow Knight had more memorable tracks imo. And the leitmotif was more noticeable. Silksong is still great but it seems to focus more on being atmospheric. Most area tracks aren't as good as the ones in HK and some bosses have music that was actually a bit underwhelming (Fourth Chorus, Nyleth and Last Judge for example)
Strive, Pharloom, Last Dive, Red Memory, Lace, Karmelita, Cogwork Dancers and Bellhart are obviously great, Widow, Hunters Trail, Bilewater and Cogwork Core were unexpected surprises
Hard disagree on Nyleth, I think it's one of the best
Dirt mouth > the entire SS soundtrack